Build Engagement using Everything DiSC!

One of the strategies in Gallup’s 2024 Employee Engagement Strategies report is "Prepare managers to have meaningful conversations with their employees."

Gallup researchers studied the most common characteristics of extremely meaningful and less meaningful conversations. These are the top 5 characteristics of meaningful conversations, in order of importance:

1) Recognition or appreciation for recent work.

2) Collaboration and relationships.

3) Current goals and priorities at work.

4) The length of the conversation: Between 15 and 30 minutes is enough time for a meaningful conversation, but only if it happens frequently.

5) Employee strengths or the things they do well: Managers can have much more meaningful discussions about how each person gets their work done if those conversations are based on what they do best.

The takeaway is that feedback is meaningful to employees when their manager focuses on recognition, collaboration, goals and priorities, and strengths. And if these conversations happen every week, they can be brief. Naturally, problems and challenges will arise — and managers and employees should discuss them — but to improve engagement, managers must have conversations that inspire each individual.

Everything DiSC is a language your organization can use to build rapport and therefore engagement between managers and employees. DM me for a demo or more information.

Learn about Empowerment in a free webinar!

Want to learn for an hour about something impactful at no charge to you?

In today’s fast-paced work environment, prioritizing employee well-being and satisfaction is essential. Empowering employees to use their judgment fosters ownership, leading to innovation, efficient problem-solving, and greater agility, while increased engagement improves retention and creates a pipeline of future leaders.

Join Dr. Mark Scullard, Sr. Director of Product Innovation, Wiley Assessment Brands, for this 60-minute webinar where you will learn:

• The unique empowerment needs of different DiSC styles.

• How to identify and address potential blind spots to ensure effective and genuine empowerment.

• Practical strategies for using Everything DiSC® on Catalyst™ to empower direct reports.

DM me today to let me know which time works for you and learn how you can help managers in your organization unlock their teams’ full potential! And if you can’t attend at that time, register anyway so you will get the recording.

November 13, 11-noon EST

December 11, 11-noon EST

January 22, 11-noon EST

Transform teamwork in your organization!

The way we “team” is more complex than ever before.

Whether we are collaborating in person, through screens, or a little of both, building a successful team can feel downright impossible. But what if it doesn’t have to feel that way?

Through impactful virtual and classroom learning experiences that empower individuals through self-discovery and constructive behavioral modeling, The Five Behaviors® is the only team development solution that rewrites the traditional rules for teamwork to build stronger teams. Transforming the team dynamic from disengaged to “let’s do this!”

This content has both individual profiles as well as those for the whole team. It’s a powerful combination to have self-aware team members who have the tools to make room for each other’s styles and preferences.

DM me for more info or a demo.

Use Catalyst™ on demand to build engagement, collaboration and fun!

Would you or your colleagues benefit from having an on-demand platform that helps you work with each other at any time and on any device?

Everything DiSC® on Catalyst™ is a personal development learning experience that equips you with the social and emotional know-how for more effective interactions at work—no matter who or where you are.
By combining the proven DiSC® model with flexible facilitation and a powerful learning platform, Everything DiSC® on Catalyst™ helps you:
• Better understand yourself
• Appreciate and value differences in perspective and approach
• Readily and consistently adapt to the unique needs of each person or situation you encounter
The result is lasting impact. When you use Everything DiSC® on Catalyst™ , the hard work of long-lasting behavior change is possible…even fun. When your organization uses Everything DiSC® on Catalyst™ , you will have a more engaged, collaborative, and adaptive culture that drives results.

If you use this, you will take one assessment one time and if you are interested in further content, you don't have to answer more questions. And until 12.31.25, you can upgrade all existing DiSC learners in your organization to Catalyst AT NO ADDITIONAL COST!

Check out this video to see more and email me at karen@karengeiger.com to bring Catalyst to your organization!

Build engagement through your managers

As you probably know, engagement is a top priority in today’s workforce. Wiley’s Workplace Initiatives research shows that:

o Engaged teams are 18% more productive than disengaged teams,

o Disengagement costs the US economy $1.9 trillion in lost productivity/year, and

o 70% of engagement variance stems from the manager relationship.

You can build your managers’ ability to build engagement by introducing them to Everything DiSC® Management, It offers a customizable development solution proven to increase the effectiveness of anyone in a management role--whether managing direct reports or the relationship with their own manager. We offer a complete program of classroom or virtual training, and online pre-work and follow-up focusing learning in five key areas:

*Understanding DiSC® styles

*Directing and delegating

*Creating a motivating environment

*Developing others with different styles

*Identifying strategies for working more effectively with managers.

Your managers will learn how their management style influences how they manage time, make decisions, approach problems, and what they need to do to adapt to the styles of others to bring out the best in each and every employee in their charge.

DM me now for a demo or more information.

L & D Takes a Seat at the Strategy Table

In McKinsey’s “The Essential Components of a Successful L&D Strategy” (2019), they observe that over the past decade, the global workforce has been continually evolving because of a number of factors:

* An increasingly competitive business landscape,

* rising complexity, and

* the digital revolution.

Meanwhile, persistent uncertainty, a multigenerational workforce, and a shorter shelf life for knowledge have placed a premium on reskilling and upskilling. The shift to a digital, knowledge-based economy means that a vibrant workforce is more important than ever and research suggests that a very significant percentage of market capitalization in public companies is based on intangible assets—skilled employees, exceptional leaders, and knowledge.

These factors have elevated the importance of the Learning-and-Development function in organizations and have placed them at the strategy table so that organizational strategy is linked to how the people will carry it out.

If your team is certified in using the Everything DiSC Suite of profiles and related facilitation tools, you will gain credibility and be able to make this link seamlessly. If you have 5+ people to be certified, DM me to set up a certification series over 2 weeks at your convenience (4 live online sessions and some online prework) and if you have fewer than that, click here for dates I can get you registered for Wiley’s certification: https://lnkd.in/gnF24RKu. Same content either way.

Celebrating my 29 years as a Wiley Partner at their Summit in Minneapolis.

Counteract social media by building authentic relationships

Social media, while supposedly intending connection between, can increase feelings of loneliness (Needle, 2024, https://lnkd.in/e_RffUFm) and block interaction if only used passively. We can build more authentic connectivity by using tools designed for that and causing people to reflect on their own thoughts and reactions as well as respond to others' thoughts and reactions, so we build meaningful community.

If we leave our connectivity to social media's openness to disinformation and shared opinions without responses, we are at risk of destroying rather than building community.

I challenge you to choose someone you work with who you only see on social media, ask them if they are willing to do this, then dm me and each of you take an Everything DiSC Workplace profile then discuss the prompted questions to build a relationships away from social media.

Develop your organization's leadership capacity by using Everything DiSC Work of Leaders®

This program, profile and facilitation guide lays out a clear path for helping leaders at all levels make the connection between their DiSC® style and leadership. With one unified model of leadership—vision, alignment, and execution—it focuses on helping leaders understand their own leadership styles and how their tendencies influence their effectiveness in specific leadership situations.

Participants Take-Aways

*Recognize the priorities and tendencies, based on their own DiSC style, that shape their approach to the fundamental work of leaders: creating a vision, building alignment around that vision, and championing execution of the vision

*Explore in detail how to play to their strengths and overcome challenges to improve their leadership effectiveness

*Identify strategies to develop preferred behaviors based on context-specific best practices 

Program Components

1. Everything DiSC Work of Leaders® Profile.  

*Research-validated, online assessment. 23-page leader-specific profile report provides detailed context-specific feedback based on the three-step Vision, Alignment, and Execution Model and the three drivers associated with each step. Strong visuals and illustrations, including 18 behavioral continua, delve deep into what steps leaders can take to increase the behaviors linked to the essential best practices of leadership.

*Easily customizable. Remove or rearrange pages, customize the profile title, or print selected sections. The profile may be used on its own or with the companion facilitation (sold separately).

2. Facilitation Toolkit 

*Five 60-90-minute modules, including fully-scripted facilitation dialogue to use with experiential learning activities and thought-provoking group discussions.

*Easily customizable. Create an end-to-end leadership development program or concentrate on specific areas. Switch out video clips. Modify the PowerPoint presentation, Leader’s Guide, and handouts. Add or delete sections to fit any timeframe.

*Engaging 17 video segments of contemporary leadership examples. Use as stand-alone clips or integrate with the facilitation PowerPoint or your custom PowerPoint presentation.

*36 dynamic podcast segments specific to one of the three components of the Work of Leaders model—vision, alignment, and execution. Learn first-hand how to interpret Work of Leaders continua to answer participant questions. Insightful information not available anywhere else.

DM me for more info or a demo profile!

Build individual and organizational capacity to make the most of teamwork in your organization

Get certified to create a lasting impact on your team members’ and organizational performance by adding The Five Behaviors® Certification to your portfolio!

In this two-week course combining live, instructor-led sessions with self-guided online learning, you will build your confidence and expertise in delivering impactful Five Behaviors® learning experiences that help build a culture of teamwork. Upon successful completion of the course work (including a score of 80% or above on the final Certification exam), you will earn the credential of The Five Behaviors Certified Practitioner— signaling proven competence in shaping engaged, cohesive, and high-performing teams—and knowledgeable in the language of The Five Behaviors.

Let me know you’re interested and find upcoming dates here: https://www.karengeiger.com/the-five-behaviors-facilitator-certificationkg.

Build productive conflict after this upcoming election

Robinson & Johnson (2024) suggest that every four years, a U.S. presidential election brings voters to an intersection where they decide whether to turn right or left. Halting at these intersections often brings heightened tension and polarizing discourse within our workplaces and society. Taking proactive measures to ensure the safety and well-being of employees and providing an environment conducive to effective collaboration among employees can help prevent fraught work environments from forming. Here are some practical procedures that employers may want to consider implementing throughout standard day-to-day operations, before and after an election, to efficiently navigate establishing ground rules and policies, fostering environments of open dialogue, and providing support.

We can use Everything DiSC® Productive Conflict to help workers improve self-awareness around conflict behaviors. Rather than focus on a step-by-step process for conflict resolution, Everything DiSC Productive Conflict provides participants with techniques to curb destructive behaviors and effectively respond to conflict situations. The program features an exploration of DiSC® in a conflict context, provides an opportunity for participants to explore their destructive conflict responses, and offers them a method for making more productive choices in their response to conflict.

Participant Take-Aways
*Appreciate how their style of handling conflict affects the people around them
*Learn how to “catch” themselves when going down a destructive conflict path
*Learn how to reframe a conflict situation and choose more productive behaviors
*Build a common language in the organization around appropriate conflict behavior

DM me for more info or an example.

Become an Everything DiSC® Certified Practitioner with me!

As the world of work becomes more reliant on technology, we have been challenged to recreate the authentic human connections that drive results. Now, with the proven power of Everything DiSC®, you can help shape a more engaged and collaborative culture by teaching people about themselves and others.

As an Everything DiSC® Certified Practitioner, you’ll build the credibility and expertise needed to deliver impactful DiSC experiences that help people work better together. During this two-week, virtual learning experience, you will:

•Deepen your understanding of the DiSC model, theory, research, and key principles.

•Learn to build custom solutions using the Everything DiSC® on Catalyst™ experience.

•Familiarize yourself with the full Everything DiSC application suite.

•Practice facilitation techniques while receiving feedback in a safe environment.

•Gain access to Wiley’s online training center, connecting you to course content and your peers.

Upon successful completion of the exam, you will earn the credential of Everything DiSC Certified Practitioner, signaling proven competence in shaping an engaged, collaborative, and high-performing culture—knowledgeable in the language of DiSC.

You can get certified in two ways: individually through Wiley or with your team through me in a schedule that works for you.

DM me to get your team certified!

Build meaningful conversations in your organization

Gallup's 2024 Employee Engagement Checklist includes this: Prepare managers to have meaningful conversations with their employees.

It goes on to define 5 characteristics of a meaningful conversation:

1) Recognition or appreciation for recent work.

2) Collaboration and relationships.

3) Current goals and priorities at work.

4) The length of the conversation: Between 15 and 30 minutes is enough time for a meaningful conversation, but only if it happens frequently.

5) Employee strengths or the things they do well: Managers can have much more meaningful discussions about how each person gets their work done if those conversations are based on what they do best. The takeaway is that feedback is meaningful to employees when their manager focuses on recognition, collaboration, goals and priorities, and strengths. And if these conversations happen every week, they can be brief. Naturally, problems and challenges will arise — and managers and employees should discuss them — but to improve engagement, managers must have conversations that inspire each individual.

As you have these meaningful conversations, taking communication preferences into account will make these successful and Wiley's Everything DiSC portfolio provides data to help each person adapt to the other's preferences. DM me for more information.

Let's work together to get your team certified in DiSC!

Build your team's ability to engage and get the best from your workforce using the DiSC family of profiles by asking me to lead their certification! DM me to set up a schedule that works for all of us.

Make your teams immediately effective together!

If your work life consists of people joining ad hoc teams to solve specific problems, Your Groups on Catalyst™ allows those teams to quickly visualize the preferences and tendencies of their teammates.

Group Continua on Catalyst is an effective (and fun!) tool for teams to build connection and community using DiSC®. By plotting members along eight different behavioral continua, teams gain straightforward language for safe conversations about differences, helping them reach new levels of performance. With Group Continua, your teams can:

• Recognize strengths and challenges

• Communicate with clarity

• Make better decisions

• And more!

This tool helps integrate DiSC® into the daily life of your organization and speeds up team effectiveness on the spot.

Become an Everything DiSC® Certified Practitioner with me!

As the world of work becomes more reliant on technology, we have been challenged to recreate the authentic human connections that drive results. Now, with the proven power of Everything DiSC®, you can help shape a more engaged and collaborative culture by teaching people about themselves and others.

As an Everything DiSC® Certified Practitioner, you’ll build the credibility and expertise needed to deliver impactful DiSC experiences that help people work better together. During this two-week, virtual learning experience, you will:

•Deepen your understanding of the DiSC model, theory, research, and key principles.

•Learn to build custom solutions using the Everything DiSC® on Catalyst™ experience.

•Familiarize yourself with the full Everything DiSC application suite.

•Practice facilitation techniques while receiving feedback in a safe environment.

•Gain access to Wiley’s online training center, connecting you to course content and your peers.

Upon successful completion of the exam, you will earn the credential of Everything DiSC Certified Practitioner, signaling proven competence in shaping an engaged, collaborative, and high-performing culture—knowledgeable in the language of DiSC.

You can get certified in two ways: individually through Wiley or with your team through me in a schedule that works for you.

DM me to get your team certified!

Pay Attention to your Managers

From Gallup's 2024 State of the Global Workplace Report:

The hard job of managing people has gotten even harder in recent years.
New demands for worker flexibility in the remote and hybrid workplace and increased risk of employee mental health problems add to the already difficult job of managing. In 2023, Gallup found one in five employees reported feeling loneliness, anger, or sadness during a lot of the previous day, and four in 10 felt a lot of stress.

Managers already have many responsibilities such as carrying out leadership initiatives, keeping up to date with customer and product needs, monitoring time and expenses, performance management, and training. But their role of inspiring people has never been more urgent. They are uniquely positioned to know each employee’s specific needs, career goals and work-life situation.

You can build your managers role awareness, engagement and capacity with the Everything DiSC Management profile either on the Catalyst platform or through traditional training. DM me for more info or a demo.

Hire and retain the best people!

How to select the right people to implement your strategy? Here's a tool that improves your hiring process: PXT Select™.

PXT Select™ helps make the very human decisions about hiring simpler and smarter. It is a powerful selection assessment that measures a candidate’s cognitive abilities, behaviors, and interests. Assessment results equip organizations and hiring managers with easy-to-understand information about the candidate and provides intuitive questions to strengthen the interview process.

One Assessment gives you a suite of reports! PXT Select’s suite of reports helps you select, onboard, coach, and develop employees. Here they are:

o Comprehensive Selection Report
o Comprehensive Selection Report: Sales*
o Multiple Positions Report
o Multiple Candidates Report 
o Team Report
o Manager-Employee Report
o Individual’s Feedback Report
o Individual’s Feedback Report: Sales*
o Individual’s Graph
o Coaching Report
o Coaching Report: Sales*
o Performance Model Report

DM me for more information, a demo, or best practices for putting this in place in your organization.

Build your Sales Capability!

Salespeople play a critical role in the success of any business. As Henry Ford famously said, "Nothing happens until someone sells something." While it’s understandable that many steps need to be taken before a product or service can be sold, Ford's point remains valid, sales are necessary for companies to generate revenue and keep the lights on.

What impact could replicating your sales superstars have? These individuals are not just contributors; they are force multipliers. According to research from Mckinsey & Company, top sales performers can be 4x more productive than bottom performers. They consistently meet (or even surpass) their sales targets, clearly understand their client’s needs, and adapt easily in all situations.

When you discover your top performer's secret sauce, you can increase sales productivity, improve conversion rates, and increase YoY growth. PXT Select® and its AI-based testing algorithms are your gateway to this transformation.

Join our virtual showcase July 18 11-noon EST to explore how PXT Select has propelled other organizations to sales successes—and how it can revolutionize yours. You’ll gain:

Actionable Insights: Identify essential data to strategically evolve your sales team for a thriving future.

Empowering Tools: Explore resources that bolster both sales leaders and their teams toward success.

Proven Strategies: Hear success stories from various organizations and their journey with PXT Select.

Don’t miss this opportunity to see PXT Select in Action! DM me to register at no charge!!!

2023 Wiley Annual Report on the State of the Workplace

Wiley Workplace Intelligence does ongoing research about the state of our workplaces and here are the top 10 takeaways from their 2023 Annual Report:

1. People are optimistic about the future of their organization. In addition, a large majority of respondents also shared that managing the well-being of their people while achieving results continues to be a priority.

2. Communication is the most important quality in a leader. It's clear that there is a need for more communication and relationship building skills in order to increase psychological safety across all organizational levels.

3. Communication has a direct impact on engagement. The frequency and kind of communication in your organization has a direct impact on the engagement, morale, and productivity of your people.

4. Individual contributors feel less safe than executives taking risks at work. A psychologically safe environment as defined by Amy Edmonson of Harvard B-School, is an environment where we feel comfortable taking risks, expressing ideas and concerns, asking questions, and admitting mistakes without fear of negative consequences.

5. Generations have more in common than not. Surprisingly, respondents largely feel understood by other generations regardless of the generation they belong to.

6. Managers lack training on how to manage conflict. Only 57% of managers reported receiving training around conflict management.

7. Upskilling employees fills the widening skills gap. Most organizations in the study didn't have a clearly identified process for identifying current skills gaps. But, almost half (42%) reported that technical skills were the most critical missing "hard" skills with interpersonal skills following at 36%.

8. Where you work doesn't impact organizational culture. Many organizations made a return-to-office push in 2023. There were concerns about the impacts of remote work on organizational culture and many companies moved from completely remote to hybrid models or required a full return to the office. This research found that location doesn’t have as big of an impact as we might expect when it comes to creating a positive workplace culture. Instead, we found that feeling connected and experiencing a sense of belonging is more critical to creating a positive culture than simply occupying the same physical space.

9. AI is not ready to replace humans when it comes to learning and development. Using AI for administrative tasks increases efficiency but knowing people seek human connection when learning, L & D practitioners should consider ways to continue meeting that need while incorporating technological advances into their practice.

10. Well-being positively impacts performance. Balancing employee satisfaction and productivity ranked the highest, and the increased focus on well-being positively impacted performance throughout these organizations.

I have tools to help you maximize each of these findings. DM me for more information or a demo!